Massachusetts English Proficiency Assessment Practice Test Reading/Writing GRADE SPAN 9–12 Student Name School Name District Name [MCAS Logo] How to Answer Multiple-Choice Questions • Read all parts of each question. • Read each of the four answer choices (A, B, C, D). • Choose the best answer to each question. • Mark your answer to each question in the space provided on your Practice Test Answer Sheet at the end of this test. How to Answer Short-Answer Questions • Read all parts of each question and follow directions. • Write your answer in the space provided on your Practice Test Answer Sheet at the end of this test. • Check your answer to make sure your answer is clear and complete. How to Answer Sentence-Writing Questions • Read all parts of each question and follow directions. • Write your answer in the space provided on your Practice Test Answer Sheet at the end of this test. • Use correct spelling and grammar. How to Answer Writing-Prompt Questions • Read all parts of each question. • Write your answer in the space provided on your Practice Test Answer Sheet at the end of this test. • Be sure your answer includes details and examples that support your topic. • Use correct spelling and grammar. Reading DIRECTIONS This session contains four multiple-choice questions and two short-answer questions. The test administrator will read the first multiple-choice question to you. Mark your answers to these questions in the spaces provided on page 10 of your Practice Test Answer Sheet at the end of this test. 1 Look at the picture below. [Doctor and child] Which word tells what the woman is doing? A. loading B. searching C. measuring D. explaining 2 Which word is part of a room? A. liquid B. helmet C. ceiling D. muscle 3 Read the story in the box below. Then answer the question that follows. All summer, Nadia had trained hard so she could be on her school’s track team. She ran every day to get stronger and faster. Today was the tryout for the team! The first six girls to cross the finish line would make the team. Nadia shook her legs. She took a few deep breaths. Coach Wallace raised his arm and blew a whistle. Nadia started running with dozens of other girls across the park. The two stars of last year’s team separated themselves from the others. Nadia knew she could not yet challenge those two girls, but she pushed herself harder and crossed the finish line in fifth place. She had made the team! What is the main event in the story? Write two details from the story to support your answer. This passage is written by a famous African American woman named Rosa Parks. She is known for her actions during the American Civil Rights movement, a time when African Americans were denied equal rights. Read the passage and then answer the questions that follow. Rosa Parks from Rosa Parks: My Story by Rosa Parks 1 About a year and a half after the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision was rendered, another major event in the civil rights struggle took place. In Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, a small but determined woman refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. She was tired of being pushed around and forced to accept horrible indignities because of her color. Forced from the bus, Rosa Parks was booked at the police station and charged with disorderly conduct. Her act of courage, however, gave birth to the Montgomery bus boycott. It helped set the stage for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and it helped to usher in a new thrust in the African-American struggle for justice and equality. 2 When I got off from work that evening of December 1, I went to Court Square as usual to catch the Cleveland Avenue bus home. I didn’t look to see who was driving when I got on, and by the time I recognized him, I had already paid my fare. It was the same driver who had put me off the bus back in 1943, twelve years earlier. He was still tall and heavy, with red, rough-looking skin. And he was still mean-looking. I didn’t know if he had been on that route before—they switched the drivers around sometimes. I do know that most of the time if I saw him on a bus, I wouldn’t get on it. 3 I saw a vacant seat in the middle section of the bus and took it. I didn’t even question why there was a vacant seat even though there were quite a few people standing in the back. If I had thought about it at all, I would probably have figured maybe someone saw me get on and did not take the seat but left it vacant for me. There was a man sitting next to the window and two women across the aisle. 4 The next stop was the Empire Theater, and some whites got on. They filled up the white seats, and one man was left standing. The driver looked back and noticed the man standing. Then he looked back at us. He said, “Let me have those front seats,” because they were the front seats of the black section. Didn’t anybody move. We just sat right where we were, the four of us. Then he spoke a second time: “Y’all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats.” 5 The man in the window seat next to me stood up, and I moved to let him pass by me, and then I looked across the aisle and saw that the two women were also standing. I moved over to the window seat. I could not see how standing up was going to “make it light” for me. The more we gave in and complied, the worse they treated us. 6 I thought back to the time I used to sit up all night and didn’t sleep, and my grandfather would have his gun right by the fireplace, or if he had his one-horse wagon going anywhere, he always had his gun in the back of the wagon. People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in. 7 The driver of the bus saw me still sitting there, and he asked was I going to stand up. I said, “No.” He said, “Well, I’m going to have you arrested.” Then I said, “You may do that.” These were the only words we said to each other. I didn’t even know his name, which was James Blake, until we were in court together. He got out of the bus and stayed outside for a few minutes, waiting for the police. 8 As I sat there, I tried not to think about what might happen. I knew that anything was possible. I could be manhandled or beaten. I could be arrested. People have asked me if it occurred to me then that I could be the test case the NAACP* had been looking for. I did not think about that at all. In fact if I had let myself think too deeply about what might happen to me, I might have gotten off the bus. But I chose to remain. [Rosa Parks] * NAACP — National Association for the Advancement of Colored People From Rosa Parks: My Story by Rosa Parks with Jim Haskins. Copyright © 1992 by Rosa Parks. Reprinted by permission of Betsy Nolan Literary Agency. Photograph copyright © AP/Wide World Photos. 4 What is the main purpose of the passage? A. to explain why Rosa Parks got on the bus B. to describe the kind of work done by Rosa Parks C. to show the different bus routes Rosa Parks could take D. to tell about an important event in the life of Rosa Parks 5 What does the word fare mean in paragraph 2? A. honest B. a carnival C. the cost of a ride D. done reasonably well Write your answer to short-answer question 6 in the space provided on page 10 of your Practice Test Answer Sheet. 6 In paragraph 6, Rosa Parks says she was “tired of giving in.” Explain what she means. Support your answer with information from the passage. Writing DIRECTIONS This session contains one multiple-choice question, one short-answer question, one sentence-writing question, and one writing-prompt question. The test administrator will read the first question to you. Write your answers to these questions in the spaces provided on pages 11 and 12 of your Practice Test Answer Sheet at the end of this test. 1 Look at the picture below. [Newsstand] Write a word or words that identify what is in the picture. 2 Look at the picture below. [Broken grocery bag] Write two complete sentences that describe what you see in the picture. 3 Which sentence is written correctly? A. The family sitting down to dinner, and Aunt Marie joining them. B. As the family sat down to dinner, and Aunt Marie joined them. C. The family sitting down to dinner. And Aunt Marie joined them. D. As the family sat down to dinner, Aunt Marie joined them. Write your answer to writing-prompt question 4 in the space provided on page 12 of your Practice Test Answer Sheet at the end of this test. 4 Think about which subject you consider the most important subject in school. Write a composition telling which subject you think is most important and explain why you think it is so important. Practice Test Answer Sheet READING 1. ABCD 2. ABCD 3. 4. ABCD 5. ABCD 6. WRITING 1. 2. 3. ABCD 4. Page 4 of 4